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MonStar's Journal: Strong & Lean

Decided to change up things quite a bit this time around here in my journal. I am going to continue doing the same program, SF's version of Westside basically. And the program honestly isn't going to change all that much at all. Here is the most updated version of what I am doing:

What is going to change radically is my diet. I am going to be doing a somewhat modified version of NHE, to drop some flab. I honestly have just been letting my bodyfat get somewhat out of control lately. Even though I am training for strength there is no reason why I cannot be strong and lean, at the same time.

NHE, to those of you who are unfamiliar, stands for a book called "Natural Horomonal Enhancement" by Rob Faigin. The book IMO is absolutely wonderful. The diet in a nutshell is basically Atkin's style all of the time, and then roughy every 3rd or 4th day I will have a refeed. On a refeed day basically the day is normal for the most part and then at night I will refeed on low-fat, high-carb foods for 3-4 hours. It's basically a chance to pig out on carbs without eating a lot of fat at all. Usually its a lot of fun, to be completely honest.

I wanted to add the NHE website to those of you who would like more info:

My strength I am hoping will still progress, especially since with the M1T, and since I am also taking SAN's V-12. Another thing that I want to add is that even though I may not be taking in carbs, I will still be keeping my calories high, that's for sure. Going to be eating a lot of fats and proteins.

Are you trying to lose me? Everytime I subscribe to your journal you get a new one. I can take a hint Mike!!!

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain...

Monolith: Yeah, another journal, diet radically changed, had to create a new one.

rock: Nah, not trying to lose you at all bro, lol. I enjoy your posts here in my journal. Sorry about having to subscribe all over the place!

PreMier: LOL, thanks man.

gwcaton: Thanks so much man, really means a lot. It's definitely a diet that I am familiar with, and I usually do not have much of a problem sticking with it for whatever reason. I guess just because I can always look forward to the refeeds, etc.

GRIFF: Thanks man.

Andrea: Wow, nice to see that someone else is on a low-carb diet right now as well. I am guessing that I'll be doing refeeds every few days like that. I havn't honestly given it all that much thought at this point. I usually try and go on no/low carbs as long as possible at first to get my body as far into ketosis as possible before refeeding.

Good workout tonight, especially considering that I was running on absolutely no carbs at all. I am really going to try and keep my training intensity up since I am running on pretty much no carbs at all. Started off working up to a 1RM pulling conventional. Worked up to 625, definitely a big PR there. 20 lbs. more than my previous PR. Had one of the powerlifters at my gym watching my technique the entire time. Definitely good to use for motivation. Never had anyone yelling at me to get it up either. So 625 definitely came up strong.

Moved onto 6 sets of 4, SLDL, which completely f*cking destroyed my lower back and hamstrings. Really really good sets. After the SLDL I moved onto hypers, which were just torture. My lower back was so friggin' gone I had nothing left. Good sets though, did the hypers Zercher style, really really good. After the hypers I did some cable pulldowns which smoked the sh*t outta' my lats. Used a shoulder-width parallel-grip which I really liked. Some pullovers and hammers, and I was done.

Diet was pretty good today I think. It is really tough eating low-carb style again especially since I am so used to eating carbs. I think that I should get used to it pretty easily though, as long as I keep my fat intake up.

Sleep: 8 hours.

Weight: 228.5 lbs.

I am currently in a M1T cycle, at 10mg per day, and I am just about ready to bump this dosage up to 15mg per day. I am about 6 days into the cycle, I believe.

So your not worried about No carbs messing with such a heavy w/o schedule? Are you going to be doing any cardio or just weights and diet? What are you parameters when doing this diet, all protein and fat is game or do you try to stay with Lean protein? How often are you eating? After your post w/o meal, how long till you eat your next meal. Sorry for all the questions, my diet is up in the air right now and I'm trying to figure out what to do with this new lifting program.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain...

rock: I am somewhat worried but not really, honestly. Strength gains for the most part are due to CNS adaptation. So I think that cutting carbs may hinder some of my accessory work maybe, but in terms of my 1RM's, I think I should be fine. We'll see what happens obviously. The diet is Atkin's style, basically just fats and protein, very very low-carb. I try to eat another meal after my postworkout meal within 2 hours, if possible.

Pretty good workout today, although I missed 365 on bench. I really thought that I was going to hit it today. I went to the gym with tons of energy, really focused, etc. I am not sure why I missed it. My spotter said that I was only a couple of inches from locking it out. I think I got about 3/4's of the way up with it. I just hit a wall right before lockout. Fought the wall that I hit for 4-5 seconds my spotter said and just couldn't finish. F*ck. Oh well.

Tate presses were pretty good I think, my left elbow has still been giving me some trouble. Whatever. 6 sets of 4 with the 80's, not too bad at all. Pressdowns were good, too. Used the entire stack for 2 sets of 12. Triceps were beat. Seated DB presses felt great, very strong. I think its time that I bump these up to the 75's or 80's for 4 sets of 6. Laterals were good, nice overall workout.

Diet was pretty good today I think. I am really honestly having no problem at all with this low-carb eating so far. I probably ended up taking in roughly 30g of carbs today I would say. Something along those lines.

Sleep: 7.5 hours.

Weight: 226 lbs.

Today is day 7 of my M1T cycle. So starting tomorrow I am going to bump my dosage up to 5mg 3x per day. Hopefully my gains will really start to take off in the next week or so. We'll see what happens.